1913 Letter to Emily Davison

On this auspicious day, the 100th anniversary to the day since women (over 30) received the vote in the UK, I’d like to point out that ignorant trolls who misuse their freedom of speech to abuse others have always existed in the world, it’s not a modern 21st century Twitter-generation phenomenon.

In the archives of the Women’s Library, the London School of Economics (LSE), London is preserved an early form of hate mail which someone sent to Emily Davison while she lay dying in a coma in 1913. She had been hit by the King’s Horse after trying to attach a “Votes for Women” scarf to the horse.

The letter reads, in full:

Miss Davison,

I am glad to hear you are in hospital. I hope you suffer torture until you die. You idiot. I consider you are a person unworthy of existence in this world and should like the opportunity of starving and beating you to a pulp. Why don’t your people find an asylum for you?